


The Road to Redemption

by xama



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: ...yeah I'm writing this, Gen, Ishval Civil War, Ishvalan Genocide, Minor Character Death, in this universe though it's going to be stopped dw, not Envy/Armstrong, not really civil it was more of an, something... else, there's going to be slash in the future
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-17 22:40:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13086900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xama/pseuds/xama
Summary: For some reason, out of all the children Envy was ordered to kill, this one stuck with them. Maybe it was the memory of all those baby Wrath candidates that Envy sometimes helped train; maybe it was a this pressure building up in their souls, and this child just burst the dam.Envy is done with killing children; it escalates from there.





	The Road to Redemption

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nival_kenival](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nival_kenival/gifts).



The Ishvalan child looked up at Envy, and smiled. Envy smiled back, and raised his gun to shoot… and pulled the trigger. The child slumped to the ground, dead. It didn’t matter to Envy, or at least it shouldn’t have mattered; they had done this before – killed someone to instigate a war. Killed a child, killed a random innocent – it was nothing new, it shouldn’t have changed anything.

It did, though. For some reason, out of all the children Envy was ordered to kill, this one stuck with them. Maybe it was the memory of all those baby Wrath candidates that Envy had helped train; maybe it was some some kind of pressure building up in their souls, and this dead kid just burst the dam.

Whatever it was, it had this effect: Envy would not and could not kill children anymore. The kicker? It meant that they couldn't work with Father anymore; it meant that they had to pull a Greed and go rogue. It wasn’t actually that difficult, being a shape-shifting nigh-immortal on the lam. They encountered Lust once, but they just imitated a dead Ishvalan and she passed. Life wasn’t necessarily good, but it was life.

At first, Envy did nothing to help the Ishvalans – sure, they had newly pledged not to kill kids, that didn’t mean that they would actually help humans; humans were still beneath them. Like rats to a god, their lives meant nothing, but there was no reason to kill a baby. Why go out of your way to kill an ant?

But one day. One day Envy saw a man with an unnatural grin on his face wielding a philosophers stone. Not any of their business, but Envy was intrigued. Following him led them into a basement that no longer had a building on top – and in that basement was a group of about five children, the oldest of whom looked ten. The man – Kimblee, who could make almost anything explode, Envy suddenly remembered – started laughing. The youngest Ishvalan child started crying; they were the first to explode. The oldest rushed at the alchemist in fury, they were the next. And also the last; without even thinking about it, Envy morphed into an Ishvalan monk and punched the alchemist in the head. He went down, and didn’t get back up.

The problem was that Envy now had to shepherd three Ishvalan children to safety; awkward. Apparently Ishvalans had a third gender, so at least there was that. And all of them knew how to use the toilet and could eat solids; that’s all there was to childcare, right?

Wrong. Envy had to deal with traumatized children, during the day and all through the night: they were crying for their parents, for siblings, for the children that got slaughtered by Kimblee, and for their god. Worse than that, Envy had only knocked Kimblee out – there was a big possibility they were being tailed; that would have been the biggest problem, but Envy didn’t know where refugee camps or safe spaces were. While this may have lessened Kimblee’s danger in that he wouldn’t find a refugee camp to slaughter by following them, it was still a problem because Envy was stuck with a bunch of kids who they didn't have the knowledge or inclination to care for, and didn't have the stomach to abandon.

But then, about two weeks after rescuing the kids, when they were corralling their charges through a recently-abandoned battlefield, Envy saw an Amestrian who might help them. Huge, bald, and weeping over a dead child’s body. Judging from the alchemy marks at feet, a State Alchemist, and therefore a Major. Envy sent the kids to hide in a nearby building – if they were wrong, they didn't want the kids' deaths to weigh them down.

“You, Amestrian. What business is it of yours if an Ishvalan dies?” The bald man looks up, the signature Armstrong cowlick swaying majestically as he did so, a devastated expression on his face. Oh, they lucked out with this one; the Armstrongs were a stubborn and hardy bunch, if Envy could sway this one to their side then the children would have a dedicated protector for as long as they lived.

“It is truly a great injustice when any child dies…” The Armstrong began, and paused for dramatic effect, raising his fist into the air, but before he had time to finish, Envy interrupted, their words biting.

“And the child’s killer being the only one grieving for them is an even greater injustice. They died frightened, afraid of you Amestrian dogs; in death, do you believe that they would really take comfort in their killer’s sorrow and remorse?”

“I was not the one to – I have yet to kill any of your people! I tried to save this one!”

“But you failed.”

He choked and looked down, “...but I failed.”

Envy crouched down now, looking this Armstrong in the eye, “You don’t agree with this mass slaughter, do you?”

“...no.”

“Well then” Envy said, standing up “what are you going to do about it?”

Armstrong seemed to lose himself in thought, and just stayed there kneeling for a surprising amount of time. Just when Envy was about to suggest helping children get to safety, Armstrong finally decided “I will destroy the railroads!” What.

“That’s not exactly what I-” Envy was cut off by a big, strong hug. What.

“I was going to go back to central, broken and disillusioned, but you have given me the strength to fight for your people! Thank you, and… I am truly sorry for what has happened.” With that, Armstrong bounded off into the distance.

Huh, that was something. Not immediately useful, but… interesting. With one conversation, Envy had changed the entire course of that man’s life. And nobody was dead because of it! Yet.

Envy shrugged, and went to get the kids so they could keep moving. If one Amestrian was here, more were bound to be around.

 

* * *

 

Eventually, they joined a bigger group of refugees. Unfortunately, Envy was now sure that Kimblee was tailing them, now tailing these refugees. If Envy left now, they’d be massacred, and it would be Envy’s fault for not killing Kimblee when they should have. After almost a month of wandering around with the big refugee group, all the traumatized Ishvalans jumping at any loud noise, Envy had had enough. They felt like this group was their responsibility, and they had to get them to safety. Kimblee was threatening their safety, ergo it was time for him to die.

Envy had look-out duty that night, and they told the other refugee on look-out that they were going to, ah, relieve themselves. Envy went into the bushes and turned into an Amestrian; time to go hunting.

They found Kimblee had set up disturbingly close to the camp, with a small group of Amestrian soldiers. Good; Envy waited until one of the soldiers got near their bush, and strangled them. To death, no more taking chances with knocking them out.

Turning into this soldier, they walked into the Amestrian encampment and beelined towards Kimblee. Their plan was simple: get him to explode the camp and kill the other Amestrians, then kill him and go back to the refugees.

Of course, the plan went wrong as soon as they got near Kimblee; a shout came from the assembles soldiers, and bullets started raining down. Oh great, the Ishvalan resistance? Now?

No, the attackers were mostly Amestrian – what? Envy walked into a bullet and played dead, waiting to see what would happen. The bullets stopped, and someone started shouting, “Surrender now, my fellow Amestrians! Our goal is not your deaths, we are merely attempting to stop this grave injustice against the Ishvalan people!” That voice… it was familiar.

Envy turned, and looked. Oh. Of course.

It was the Armstrong. Leading a rebellion.

Envy knew then and there that they were going to get dragged into it.

**Author's Note:**

> Again inspired by a discord conversation; eventual Maes/Envy, though it may end up being platonic for a long while. You have been warned.


End file.
